NAB

David Field, president and CEO of Entercom Communications, will be the keynote speaker at this year's RAIN Summit Orlando on Tuesday, September 17th. RAIN Summit's annual half-day fall conference will take place the day immediately preceding The RAB/NAB Radio Show.

As leader of one of the nation's largest radio broadcasting companies, Field has worked in various positions in Entercom for 26 years and currently serves on the boards of the Radio Advertising Bureau, the National Association of Broadcasters, and The Wilderness Society. Fields was recognized as the 2006 Radio Executive of the Year by Radio Ink Magazine and one of the best CEOs in America by Institutional Investor Magazine in 2006, 2007, and 2008.

"We are thrilled to feature David Field as our keynote speaker at this year’s RAIN Summit at The Radio Show," said RAIN Summits president Jennifer Lane. "Entercom is one of the most innovative broadcast companies, distributing content across a wide variety of new media platforms to best serve their listeners."

Hosted by RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter publisher Kurt Hanson, the Summit will feature a variety of other speakers and panelists, offering insights on advertising sales, programming, audience metrics, social media, and emerging technology in online radio. Hanson will also make his "State of the Industry" address on the present and future of radio and new media.

An official partner event of The Radio Show, RAIN Summits are the premiere educational and networking events for Internet radio, focusing on the intersection of radio and the Internet. RAIN Summits are geared to broadcasters pureplay webcasters alike.

Previous RAIN Summit keynote speakers include CBS Radio CEO Dan Mason, Pandora founder Tim Westergren, RAB president/CEO Erica Farber, Clear Channel EVP/Digital Sales Tim Castelli, NPR SVP/Digital Media Kinsey Wilson, ESPN SVP Traug Keller, and Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy.

RAIN Summit Orlando is Tuesday, September 17 at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando. We'll soon announce more speakers and panel topics. You can always find the lastest information, along with registration links, on the RAIN Summit Orlando web page here. For sponsorship information, contact RAIN Summits president Jennifer Lane.

The National Association of Broadcasters has reportedly formed a dedicated task force in anticipation of upcoming negotiations on streaming music royalties.

The NAB reached a streaming royalty deal with SoundExchange (the music industry body that adminsters royalties for the online use of copyright recordings) in February of 2009 (ending in 2015), the top-level terms of which are here under "COMMERCIAL BROADCASTERS".

Inside Radio reports Beasley Broadcast Group CFO Caroline Beasley will head the task force. As chair of the NAB Radio Board, Beasley "was actively involved in 2010's performance royalty negotiations," Inside Radio wrote.

Her company is one of the ownership groups which, like Clear Channel and Entercom, have entered into royalty deals outside of the NAB/SoundExchange deal, with some smaller labels. Though the terms of the deals are never made public, it's commonly understood that in exchange for significant royalty discounts on the music they stream, radio groups pay a small royalty on the broadcast use of the labels' recordings (which the radio groups characterize as an "advertising revenue share").

Part of the NAB's deal with SoundExchange, by the way, waives limits on music use imposed by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, known as the “sound performance complement,” which presumably makes online channels like iHeartRadio's two-artist "Beatles & Stones" stream (see our coverage here) legit.

We've been doing a lot of RAIN Summit West review lately (here and here, with more to come!), so we wanted to take a minute and pass along some other news that's out there. Some is from the NAB Show, some unrelated, but we hope you find it useful and interesting.

NAB's Smith urges embrace of "hybrid radio": NAB CEO Gordon Smith (right), in his "State of the Industry" address at the NAB Show Monday, urged broadcasters to find ways of providing content across platforms.

He described "radios in smartphones" as a "hybrid-radio" system combining on-air content with interactive enhancements. He also acknowledged broadcast radio's upcoming battle to maintain its dominance in the car dashboard. Billboard's coverage gave no indication of any mention of Internet radio or streaming. Read more in Billboard.biz here.

Aha Radio inks CBS News deal, launches Publisher Portal: Aha Radio by Harman announced Monday its partnership with CBS Radio News, bringing audio of the broadcaster's top news programs to Aha Radio listeners. Aha also launched its "Publisher Portal" by which anyone (following an approval process) can make content available on the Aha Radio system. There's more in Examiner.com here.

TargetSpot to deliver in-stream ads for Microsoft's Xbox Music Service: Online audio ad network TargetSpot announced it will deliver in-stream audio ads for the free version of the Xbox Music service (pictured) on the gaming console and Windows devices.

Former Triton exec Freund lands at Clip Interactive: Former EVP/Triton Media Group Bill Freund joins technology company Clip Interactive as VP/Chief Revenue Officer in preparation for a 2014 national rollout of the service which will allow mobile listeners to interact with broadcast radio content.

Global shipments of PCs fell 14% in first quarter: ZDNet calls that the worst drop in a generation, the steepest decline since 1994. The IDC (International Data Corporation) points to a number of factors -- like mobile, but also "a weak reception for Windows 8." Read more in ZDNet here.

Jelli says data shows increased social engagement helps ratings: Jelli has released data it says reveals a direct correlation between increased "social engagement" by broadcasters with listeners and increased listening (as reflected by ratings). The company measured weekly active registered users who were using its online or mobile app to vote to choose the music played during live broadcasts. It found as weekly social engagement rose 127%, weekly cume went up 30%.

Jelli says its data also shows these socially-engaged listeners engage with advertising more.

Net radio streaming service SurferNETWORK awarded patent: SurferNETWORK, a streaming vendor, was awarded its fifth "Buffering Patent" for technology that enables content streams "to start immediately," instead of waiting for playback while a cache of data loads.

The Cox Media Group has officially announced its support of the Internet Radio Fairness Act (details of the bill are here) that would move Internet radio royalty determinations away from the controversial "willing buyer willing seller" standard to the more widely-accepted 801(b) standard.

"We believe the current royalty system for Internet radio actually hinders its future and growth," CMG Director of Communications Andy McDill said. "Cox Media Group strongly believes in a vibrant Internet radio marketplace, where artists, broadcasters and our listeners benefit from a sustainable rate setting process."

Other broadcast groups supporting the bill include Clear Channel and Salem Communications. Other supporters include webcasters like Pandora, Radio Paradise, and AccuRadio; plus groups like the Consumer Electronics Association and the Computer and Commmunications Industry Association.

While the NAB hasn't explicitly signed on as a supporter of the IRFA, when the bill was introduced the group said it "strongly supports legislative efforts to establish fair webcast streaming rates. NAB will work with the bill's sponsors and all interested parties to create broadcast radio streaming rates that promote new distribution platforms and new revenue streams that foster the future growth of music" (here).

Read more in Radio Online here.

Clear Channel's iHeartRadio has launched a new non-customizable stream called "All Beatles & Stones Radio." As its name suggests, the stream plays only music by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

Inside Radio reports the station is a part of iHeartRadio's "Back To School" line-up of stations, one for every letter of the alphabet. "All Beatles & Stones" represents the letter A. Other featured artists will apparently include Passion Pit ("P"), Bananarama and the Bangles ("B"), Lupe Fasco ("L") and others. RAIN could not find these other stations on iHeartRadio's website (besides the custom radio stations for each artist). Inside Radio refers to them as iHeartRadio Original stations, but they do not appear at time of publication on iHeartRadio's Originals page (here).

The "All Beatles & Stones" stream -- which does not allow the user to skip songs -- includes nothing but Beatles and Rolling Stones music, sometimes with songs by the same artist back-to-back. The music is only broken-up by an occassional short identifier.

But most webcasters aren't allowed to do this. After all, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) imposes limits on the use of music within Internet radio streams for webcasters that intend to use the statutory license. For example, webcasters are not allowed to play more than 4 songs by the same artist in a 3 hour period -- a rule iHeartRadio's Beatles/Stones stream broke several times just during the composition of this article.

"These limits were placed seemingly to make it more difficult for listeners to copy songs, or for Internet radio stations to become a substitute for music sales," writes industry attorney David Oxenford (pictured below), now a partner with Wilkinson Barker Knauer. He outlines some of the other DMCA restrictions in the Broadcast Law Blog here.

However, it turns out the NAB negotiated with the four major music labels and A2IM in 2009 to waive some of these limits, including that 4-songs-by-the-same-artist rule. Those agreements were a part of the NAB's settlement with SoundExchange which set royalty rates through 2015 at a discount from what was decided by the Copyright Royalty Board (as was permitted by the Webcaster Settlement Acts; read more in RAIN here).

However, as Oxenford wrote in 2009 (here) after reviewing each agreement between the NAB and labels, these waivers apply to web streams of over-the-air and HD-2 stations. They "do not cover Internet-only channels that a broadcaster may program on its website." It's possible Clear Channel is broadcasting the "All Beatles & Stones Radio" channel as an HD-2 or over-the-air station somewhere, in which case the DMCA restrictions would most likely not apply.

Additionally though, the DMCA's restrictions are only waived "insofar as the broadcaster does not 'depart materially from today's range of typical over-the-air radio programming practices,' citing specifically the practices of having DJs talk between songs and stations running commercials and PSAs between songs." Does the "Beatles & Stones" station's back-to-back music line-up, with only ocassional short identifiers, "depart materially" from today's "typical over-the-air radio programming practices"?

Other restrictions in some of the agreements, such as not streaming more than half the songs from an album or CD at any time within a 3 hour period, would make stations focusing on new artists with relatively small discographies like Passion Pit potentially difficult.

You can listen to iHeartRadio's "All Beatles & Stones Radio" station here. You can subscribe to Inside Radio's daily newsletter here.

New draft legislation from U.S. Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) has sparked backlash from webcasters and broadcasters alike. The bill's opponents say it discrimnates against new technology and would kill jobs.

Nadler's bill, the Interim FIRST Act, would raise streaming royalty costs for AM/FM broadcasters by imposing an extra fee (essentially adding an over-the-air performance royalty to broadcasters' streaming bills; RAIN coverage here). It would also potentially raise royalty rates for satellite and cable radio by shifting those platforms' rate determinations to the "willing buyer/willing seller" model, instead of the 801(b) standard.

"Fairness demands that all music related rate settings utilize the same 801(b) standard," argued Pandora founder Tim Westergren in a statement.

Westergren called the current royalty system "astonishingly unfair," with Internet radio paying substantially higher rates than other radio platforms. Pandora paid nearly 70% of total revenue to royalties (based on its Q1 FY 2013), compared to SiriusXM which pays about 8%.

"Congressman Nadler’s discussion draft would only perpetuate this hypocrisy and worsen an already flawed legislative mistake that is discriminating against new technology and hampering innovation."

Cathy Rought of the Free Radio Alliance (FRA) said Nadler's bill "is misguided and would cause irreversible harm to free and local radio" (more here). The FRA continues on its blog (here): "It's clear that the ultimate objective is a back door attempt at a performance tax."

NAB spokesperson Dennis Wharton agreed, saying the draft legislation "fails to recognize" radio's "unparalleled promotional value" and "would kill jobs" at radio stations.

The National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) also "strongly opposes" Nadler's legislation, writing in a statement that it "would place a new and unwarranted burden on many Christian radio broadcasters" (more here).

TechDirt's Mike Masnick writes (here), "As it stands now, [royalty] rates are so damaging that Pandora -- the top player in the space -- has made it clear it may never be profitable. Yes, never. Nadler's bill would effectively make sure that no one else in that market would be profitable either. The end result? Many of these services don't exist or never get started. That would actually mean fewer services, fewer listeners and lower royalties."

Nadler's bill has the support of the musicFIRST Coalition, which argues it would implement a system "that treats artists and platforms fairly and equally." Nadler thinks his bill would "both level the playing field for Internet radio and ensure that artists are fairly compensated."

Pandora disagrees, instead supporting legislation from Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT). Chaffetz's bill, the Internet Radio Fairness Act of 2012, would move web radio royalty rate determinations to the 801(b) standard -- the same standard currently used to set rates for radio delivered via satellite, cable and other platforms (RAIN coverage here).

"Congress should embrace the Chaffetz approach," said Westergren. The Hill has more coverage here.